Monster Match 3 week Project

MONSTER MATCH

3 WEEK PR

OJECT

1S T GR A D E P

B L BY E

L E M E N T A R Y TE A C H E R S

C A S S I E D

A V I S &

B R I TT A N Y D

O R R I S

DRIVING QUESTION:How important is it to express myself clearly so

others will understand?

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:• Students will create their own unique monsters

and then write a descriptive paragraph about their monster so that a student from another class can recreate their monster based on their description

• Each student will also get the opportunity to recreate another students monster

• Before creating their own monster the students will explore different descriptive tools through various lessons

ENTRY EVENT:• Read “The Judge” by Harve Zemach• Have student predict what the monster at the

end will look like• Discuss what words the author used to allow us

to create our versions of the monster• Discuss why we see things differently

PRE-LESSON ON DESCRIPTIVE WRITING:• Have students listen to descriptive and

narrative phrases describing a monster• Have students create the monster based on the

teachers description• Discuss the difference between descriptive and

narrative writing • Discuss which type of writing was more helpful

in recreating the monster

PRE-LESSON ON ADJECTIVES: • Go over a definition of

adjectives and give examples

• Read “Where the Wild Things Are” and have students use adjectives to describe the monsters

• Record all adjectives students say on a giant notepad

• Encourage students to add more through out the unit

LESSON ON VIBRANT WORDS AND COMPARISON:

• Read three pre-made descriptions of Mike, Sully, and Randall from Monsters Inc. that include the usage of vibrant words and comparison

• Have students recreate each monster based on the descriptions without knowing what character they are creating

• Reveal actual characters to students and have discussion about their interpretation versus the movie

• Discuss the use of vibrant words and comparison to describe the monsters

LESSON ON VIBRANT WORDS AND COMPARISON CONTINUED…

FORENSIC SKETCH ARTIST• Invite a forensic sketch artist to

come in and explain their job in relation to descriptive writing

• Students partner up and try to imitate a forensic sketch artist job by having one person give a description of a pre-sketched face and the other recreating it based on that persons description

• Have a class discussion about students’ experience with this activity

FIELD TRIP TO THE AQUARIUM: • Go on a field trip to

the Aquarium• Have students use

previous learned descriptive tools to describe and draw their top 5 different sea creatures

• Next class day have each student share their favorite sea creature description

CREATING MONSTERS:• Introduce the main

project to the students of creating their own monsters and descriptive paragraphs and sharing with another student in a different class

• Encourage students to create monsters that are descriptively unique

CREATING DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPHS:• Students write a rough draft

of their descriptive paragraph

• Students partner up and give each other feedback

• Students alter their writing and edit to create a final draft

EXCHANGING DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPHS AND RECREATING A MONSTER:• Students exchange their descriptive paragraphs

with another student from a different class• Students try to recreate their fellow school

mates monster based on their descriptive paragraph

END DISCUSSION:• Have class discussion about what they learned

throughout this unit making conclusions about the power of language

• Answer the driving question during this discussion: How important is it to express myself clearly so others will understand?

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT DURING PRE-LESSONS:

• Assess whether the students understand each different descriptive tool and know how to use each one

• This can be accomplished by:• the end group discussions at the end of every lesson•and by looking over students work after each lesson

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT DURING PROJECT:

• Formative assessment involves examining each students rough draft

• Each student must be using the different descriptive tools they learned about the past two weeks

• Each student should not be using narrative phrases

CULMINATING AFTER SCHOOL EVENT:• Host an after school event where

each students descriptive paragraph, their monster drawing, and their school mates version is displayed in a PowerPoint.

• Allow community members to participate in the PowerPoint by trying to recreate the monster based on just the descriptive paragraphs

FORMATIVE/SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT AFTER PROJECT:• Formative assessment portion includes

the end class discussion• Summative assessment portion include

the students reflections on the driving question: How important is it to express myself clearly so others will understand?